The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov remarked last week that Moscow expects nothing good in relations with a “deeply hostile” US under the incoming administration of Joe Biden. He further said in an interview with the Interfax published Wednesday, “We are heading from bad to worse. The next US president has been left with …
Assertive Germany muddles Iran issue
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin attended ceremony on the arrival of first of four German-made corvettes, Haifa, Israel, Dec. 2, 2020. Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister, in a speech in Moscow on December 8 dwelt on the western attempts lately to maintain the model of a unipolar world order. He said the European Union’s dalliance with …
Russia, China reinvent their moorings in Central Asia
Soldiers from US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division line up in a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III to parachute into a drop zone in Central Asia in a spectacular display of the longest distance airborne operation in military history, Chimkent, Kazakhstan, Sept. 15, 1997. The United States, which was de facto assuming the historical role …
Continue reading “Russia, China reinvent their moorings in Central Asia”
Trump’s Afghan drawdown doesn’t mean war is ending
Then Vice-President Joe Biden (L) talks with Gen. David Petraeus (R), then Commander of the ISAF and US Forces in Afghanistan, aboard a Chinook helicopter over Kabul, Afghanistan, Jan. 11, 2011 As the US President Donald Trump chalks up his measly legacy in the White House, he is bound to scrap the bottom of the barrel. …
Continue reading “Trump’s Afghan drawdown doesn’t mean war is ending”
Arc of instability on Russia’s periphery
An arc of instability has appeared on Russia’s peripheral regions to the west and southwest — Belarus, Nagorno-Karabakh and Kyrgyzstan. These regions are vital to Russia’s national security and weakens its capacity to be a resurgent power on the world stage. Belarus is a de facto buffer zone for Russia vis-a-vis the West. Russia …
The Time of Troubles in Transcaucasia — Part 3
Women and children read books in a bomb shelter seeking refuge from shelling, Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh, Oct 1, 2020 This is the concluding part of a 3-part essay. The first part is here; the second part here. Caucasian chalk circle The United States and Russia are increasingly in each other’s crosshairs on the global …
Continue reading “The Time of Troubles in Transcaucasia — Part 3”
The Time of Troubles in Transcaucasia – Part 2
The desperate Battle of Shipka Pass in Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 between Ottoman Empire & Eastern Orthodox coalition led by Russian Empire, fought in the Balkans and the Caucasus which the Turks lost to be pushed back all the way to the gates of Constantinople. Part-1 of the three-part essay is here. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel …
Continue reading “The Time of Troubles in Transcaucasia – Part 2”
Belarus, Navalny cast shadows on Russia’s ties with EU
Belarusian opposition protestors marching toward the presidential palace, Minsk, September 6, 2020 The Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu disclosed on September 6 on the state television that there has been a thirty percent increase in aerial surveillance on the country’s borders by NATO jets in August as compared to last year. Unlike in the past when surveillance …
Continue reading “Belarus, Navalny cast shadows on Russia’s ties with EU”
Russia takes Europe’s support to calm Belarus
Opposition protests in Minsk, Belarus, Aug 16, 2020 The mercurial Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has not been an easy ally for the Kremlin. But the growing interference by Belarus’ “New European” neighbours is setting the stage for a “colour revolution” with potentially anti-Russian orientation. Poland, egged on by the US, has convinced itself that it …
Continue reading “Russia takes Europe’s support to calm Belarus”
Stars and stripes rise over Vistula River
US President Donald Trump (R) & Polish President Andrzej Duda (L) at a press conference, White House, Washington, June 24, 2020 The visit by Polish President Andrzej Duda to the White House on June 24 marks an important milestone in the United States’ transatlantic strategies. It comes at a time when a growing number of …
Continue reading “Stars and stripes rise over Vistula River”